The present invention relates to a locator bushing for modular welding tables.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 for currently available prior art products and the way the products are used.
Modular welding tables generally contain some removable plates that are fixed on top of frames. On each plate 21, there are a number of mounting holes 23 for the mounting of the plate to the frame 22 by screws 24. The diameter of each mounting hole 23 is a little bit bigger than the diameter of screw 24. On one side of each mounting hole 23, there is a recess area 25 with diameter a little bit bigger than the diameter of the head of screw 24. To fix a plate 21 to frame 22 of the welding table, one has to align roughly all the mounting holes 23 to the threaded holes 26 on frame 22 first, and insert each screw 24 through each mounting hole 23 of the plate 21 to each threaded hole 26. Most of the time, the alignment may not be good for all the mounting holes 23 at the first trial. So one has to reposition each plate 21 bit by bit until all the screws 24 are inserted to the corresponding threaded holes 26 on frame 22 properly. All the screws 24 can then be finger tightened.
After all the plates 21 are mounted on frame 22, one has to use special alignment tool to check the alignment of these plates 21 relative to each other. Minor adjustments of the alignment of each plate 21 have to be performed due to the end-play between each screw 24 and each mounting hole 23. When desired alignment is achieved for a plate 21, the screws 24 can be tightened. Completing the alignment for all the plates 21 will be a time consuming process, before the plates are all aligned properly and ready for use.
The present invention will improve the efficiency of setting up a modular welding table by reducing the time it takes to properly aligning the plates on top of the frames, thanks to the bushing locator design as described and disclosed herein.
Another advantage of implementing the design disclosed herein is that the plates can have double its useful life, if one side's surface get worn out, the plates can be flipped over and use the other side's surface.